Kite Surfer Fights off Sharks for 2 Days

Wind dies, man stranded in Red Sea

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Calm winds on the Red Sea this week stranded a Polish wind surfer who was attempting to ride 124 mile across from Egypt to Saudi Arabia, forcing him to fight off sharks with a pocket knife for two days while he waited for help. Jan Lisewski, 42, was roughly 40 miles off the coast of Saudi Arabia when winds died and his kite collapsed. Lisewski fought off sharks for 40 hours before rescuers from the Saudi coast guard picked him up. "I was stabbing them in the eyes, the nose and gills," he said. Lisewski gained fame last July for surfing across the Baltic Sea.

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NBC Will Show London Olympics Live

Network partners with YouTube

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NBC will partner with YouTube to broadcast every event at the London Olympic Games in real time, either on television or online, in a break with the network's tradition of airing marquee events after a tape delay. NBC will take advantage of YouTube's capacity to host live video and the site's enormous traffic stream. NBC expects to produce 3,000 hours of live Olympics coverage while the Games run between July 27 and August 12. "YouTube makes sense, said NBC executive Rick Cordella, "they had the technology to pull off a massive amount of video consumption."

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Guns Ineffective in Bear Attacks

Injury rate same for armed, unarmed victims

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In a study published on Monday, biologists from Brigham Young University found that firearms are not an effective means of preventing injury or death during a bear attack. Dr. Tom Smith led a team that analyzed 269 incidents in Alaska involving conflicts between humans and bears. The researches found no statistical difference in the rate of injury or death between those who used a firearm during a charge and those who were unarmed. Dr. Smith concluded that prevention is the best way to avoid deadly encounters with bears. “We’re seeing more and more people in bear country with guns,” Smith said. “Yet guns, for most people, are not their best option. You don’t even need a gun if you behave appropriately.” In a 2008 study of 176 bear encounters when the human carried bear spray, there were no deaths and only three injuries.

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Exercise Changes DNA, Study Says

Scientists compared genes post exercise

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Even small amounts of exercise can change a person's DNA, according to a study published Wednesday by researchers at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. The study examined muscle cell samples from relatively sedentary men and women before and after a short but intense workout on a stationary bike. Although the subject's underlying genetic code did not change, more genes were activated in the post-exercise cell samples. These genes are known to be significant for muscles to adapt to exercise. The researchers said caffeine also produces a similar result, but not at a high enough level to replace exercise.